Outstanding Club

Outstanding Club Newsletter - April 16th, 2008

This issue’s topic: Following Your Passions

Make sure to read through to the bottom of this post to win a US $25 Amazon Gift Certificate!

Outstanding Quote

“There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way.” – Christopher Morley

Passion Formula

• Innovation + Passion = Motivation
• Motivation + Passion = Determination
• Determination + Passion = Creation

Following Your Passions

One of the most powerful words in the english language is “why”. Without the ability to effectively wield that word, life is considerably more inefficient and challenging. The word “why” is the key to managing any finite resources you find the need to somehow harness in your daily tasks. Here are three big “whys” that may help illustrate how powerful a word it truly is.

The Why of Money Management

If you asked a room full of people to raise their hand if they wanted a lot more money than they have today, it is very likely the majority of hands would shoot up. Many would go back down, however, if the followup request was to keep the hands raised if they could name five specific reasons what the purpose of having more money in their lives would be. Simply put, what is the point of having more money, or even knowing how to manage money well, if at the end of the day you don’t have any dreams, goals, aspirations, or passions to apply that money towards achieving?

David Bach, author of The Automatic MIllionaire and Smart Couples Finish Rich (amongst other titles) has a wonderful tool available free for download from his website, to help you start to figure out what the purpose of having more money would be in your own personal life.

Click here to download and review David’s wonderful approach to the Why of Money Management.

The Why of Time Management

According to recent AC Nielsen and US Census Bureau data, the average American spends more than four hours a day watching television. Over thirty hours a week. Over two months a year.

Here are some more ways in which many of us are spending our time:

• 41 hours working
• 56 hours sleeping
• 8 hours commuting/driving
• 10.5 hours buying, preparing, and eating food
• 6.5 hours getting ready for the day or getting ready for bed
• 4 hours per week doing household chores (remember, this is an average)

All of this adds up to precious little time to do things we actually want to pursue! How do you begin to take back some of your time and apply it to the things you are passionate about in life? One key answer is the Why of Time Management.

1. Step One: Use the link to David Bach’s tool above and take a few days or a week to take a solid first attempt at filling out the Value’s Circle and identifying specific goals to link to each of those values. Whether you’re figuring out what the purpose of having more time or more money is, you need to get to the same core answers for yourself
2. Step two: Over the course of one week, including workdays and weekends, keep a journal of how you are spending your time. Be specific - don’t just write down “work” for 8 hours, but rather write down the specific tasks you are working on during that time. When you are at home, track how much time you spend watching TV, playing video games, cooking, cleaning your house… whatever specific things you are doing in your time at home.
3. Step three: Take the log of how you spent your time last week, and compare it to your Values Circle and the goals you set out related to those things you found you were passionate about in life. How well does how you are spending your time and energy match up with the things you have discovered and defined for yourself as what is truly important in life?

I’m not saying there isn’t a time and place for things like television or other entertainment sources - we all need to unwind in our own ways to keep our sanity in life! But I would suggest that as you are about to perform another task at work, ask yourself “Why am I about to do this in this way? Is this even a job I enjoy? Is there a way I could enjoy what I’m doing more?” Before you sit down to an hour of the latest reality show, ask “Is this going to enrich my life in any way? At the end of the next hour, will I feel more energized/relaxed/accomplished doing something else instead of how I’m about to spend the time?”

What this all boils down to ultimately is simply to be conscious of how you’re spending your time and the things in your life that are important for you, by your own definition, to devote your time to.

Have a Why Attitude

Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, the whys get trained out of us and get replaced with hows and whats. This leads to many people performing tasks, perhaps very effectively in terms of what they were asked to do, but without understanding the reason for doing them in the way they’ve been told (or, perhaps more importantly, why they are doing them at all). Nurturing a “Why Attitude” can lead to innovation and incredibly positive change in virtually every aspect of your life. You begin to understand how to better align your time, money, relationships, and other aspect of your life to the things you are most passionate about. If you haven’t found exactly what those passions are, the next issue of this newsletter will hopefully take you closer to figuring that out.

Outstanding Community Recognition - The Pat Tillman Foundation

From the Pat Tillman Foundation’s website:

“The Pat Tillman Foundation seeks to carry forward Pat’s legacy by inspiring and supporting young people striving to promote positive change in themselves and the world around them.”

If you live in the Phoenix area, it’s hard not to know the story of Pat Tillman’s life and legacy. His decision to put his football career on hold after the attacks on September 11th, 2001 and enter military service is the sort of action, courage, and leadership that can truly be defined as outstanding. More details on his life, death, and the legacy that remains as a beacon of inspiration to others can be found at the Pat Tillman Foundation’s website.

To fulfill the mission of the Pat Tillman Foundation, they have created a program called Leadership Through Action.

“Leadership Through Actionâ„¢ enhances young people’s leadership skills, helps them use their skills to develop solutions to today’s problems and ultimately funds the most viable projects. The program also creates a forum and a network for current leaders to help shape these leaders of tomorrow.”

Four Hour Challenge

If the Four Hour Challenge is an unfamiliar concept to you, please visit our website for more information.

If the vision and mission of the Pat Tillman Foundation call to your life through your own passions and interests, here are some ways you can take the Outstanding Club’s Four Hour Challenge to honor and contribute to their cause:

• Pat’s Run - A 4.2 mile fundraising run/walk event that occurs in Tempe AZ and San Jose CA every year. Whether you are a runner or you want to get in shape to be one, if you live in one of these locations or are able/willing to travel there, this is a nice outstanding milestone you can take weekly action towards.
• Volunteer - The Pat Tillman Foundation’s Leadership Through Action program has the ability through their website to volunteer to help with student projects. Not sure if they have opportunities to help out virtually from wherever you’re located (the program is currently at Arizona State University), but if you have a passion to help I’m sure you can come up with a way to do so from wherever you are in the world.
• Become a Mentor - “The LTA program is looking for distinguished business and community leaders to help guide the Pat Tillman Scholars in pursuit of their passions.”
• Innovate - If this organization struck a chord within you, but none of these options align with your strengths or interests, reach out to the organization and ask if there’s some way you can help with your particular set of talents or skills (make sure you tell them what those are, of course).

What is Your Mission Statement - Outstanding Club Group Writing Contest

The leadership of Outstanding Club is busily working away at refining the vision and mission of the group. A great mission statement is one that is succinct but thorough, simple but all-encompassing. It is a filter through which all things must pass to be considered a part of what the group is and does. If you intend to use it as that filter, it has to be, deserves to be, chiseled to near-perfection.

With that in mind, the challenge to you this month is to define your own mission statement. What are the things that define you to the core? With a clearly defined mission statement and vision for your life, it becomes far easier to know what to say no to, what to embrace in your life, and how to spend more of your time doing what is unmistakably “you”.

Write your personal mission statement and the process you go through to determine what it ought to be, and you might win one of two US $25 Amazon Gift Certificates! For an example, here’s a link to the Personal Mission Statement of one of the Outstanding Club members. Yours does not have to be as long, structured in the same way - heck, you don’t even need to succeed in coming up with one! The process of trying to develop one is the important part.

How to Win

Write a blog entry on your own blog describing what your personal mission statement is, along with a description of the process you went through to come up with it. Only one entry per participant! It should be recent and original (up to 60 days old is OK). You’re strongly encouraged (though not required) to link back to this blog to acknowledge your participation.

Contact us via a comment on this post (see the little comment link near the top of this newsletter) or via e-mail at iainhamp at gmail no later than Wednesday, April 30, at midnight Pacific Standard Time. Include your name and the URL of your list.  On May 7, we’ll post a list with all valid entries.You have until Wednesday, May 14 to read the participants’ entries and post a list with your favorite entries in your own blog. You should pick at least 3 favorite entries, and as many as you like (all, if you are so inclined).

Note: While we certainly don’t want to discourage anyone from linking to their favorite entries, regardless of whether they participated, only those who submitted entries and then vote on their favorites will be eligible to win.

On May 21 the winners will be announced. Every time an entry gets mentioned as a favorite it gets one point, regardless of position. The two entries with the most votes get the prizes (if there’s a draw, the entry that was submitted first gets ranked higher).

Prizes

As mentioned before, the two top entries in the group writing contest will win US $25 Amazon Gift Certificates! Good luck, and we can’t wait to read your entries!

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